Sakshi Education
By Srirangam Sriram, Sriram's IAS, New Delhi.
States Parties have formally reviewed the operation of the BWC every five years and said that BWC extends to new scientific and technological developments. They have also instituted confidence-building data-exchanges in order to enhance transparency and strengthen the BWC. The Ninth BWC Review Conference will be held in Geneva in late 2021.
What did India say when the BWC completed its 45 years earlier in 2020?
India values BWC as the first global and non- discriminatory disarmament Convention and gives a high priority to its universalisation and full and effective implementation by all States Parties to it.
India wants a comprehensive and legally binding Protocol, providing for an effective, universal and non-discriminatory verification mechanism to strengthen the implementation of the Convention by States Parties, ensuring full compliance and deterring non-compliance with it.
The global economic and social implications of the pandemic, caused by Covid-19, have underlined the need for international cooperation, including institutional strengthening of the World health Organisation(WHO).
India has been working with fellow States Parties to establish database which can play an important role in dealing with bio-threats and bio- emergencies.
India has also been highlighting the dangers from the possible use, in future, of microorganisms as biological weapons by terrorists.
Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons. The Convention adds to the 1925 Geneva Protocol which prohibits use but not possession or development of chemical and biological weapons. BWC entered into force in 1975. 183 countries are party to it. They are committed to prohibit the development, production, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons.
Salient features of the Convention
Salient features of the Convention
- Never acquire or retain biological weapons.
- To destroy or divert to peaceful purposes biological weapons
- Not to transfer, or assist anyone to acquire or retain biological weapons.
- To take national measures to implement the BWC domestically.
- To request the UN Security Council to investigate alleged breaches of the BWC and to comply with its subsequent decisions.
- To assist States which have been exposed to a danger as a result of a violation of the BWC.
- To encourage the peaceful uses of biological science and technology.
States Parties have formally reviewed the operation of the BWC every five years and said that BWC extends to new scientific and technological developments. They have also instituted confidence-building data-exchanges in order to enhance transparency and strengthen the BWC. The Ninth BWC Review Conference will be held in Geneva in late 2021.
What did India say when the BWC completed its 45 years earlier in 2020?
India values BWC as the first global and non- discriminatory disarmament Convention and gives a high priority to its universalisation and full and effective implementation by all States Parties to it.
India wants a comprehensive and legally binding Protocol, providing for an effective, universal and non-discriminatory verification mechanism to strengthen the implementation of the Convention by States Parties, ensuring full compliance and deterring non-compliance with it.
The global economic and social implications of the pandemic, caused by Covid-19, have underlined the need for international cooperation, including institutional strengthening of the World health Organisation(WHO).
India has been working with fellow States Parties to establish database which can play an important role in dealing with bio-threats and bio- emergencies.
India has also been highlighting the dangers from the possible use, in future, of microorganisms as biological weapons by terrorists.
What are the lacunae and problems associated with BWC?
Absence of any formal verification regime to monitor compliance has limited the effectiveness of the Convention. BWC established a group of government experts (known as VEREX) for working out binding verification protocol to the BWC. VEREX is Experts to Examine Verification Measures.
Funds are another problem.
Why is the BWC so enormously important today?
Ever since the novel coronavirus broke out late in 2019, there have been speculations about the communist government of China trying to ‘cover-up’ the outbreak and hide the official figures.
The fact that the Chinese Government tried to suppress the attempts of the whistle blowers (the insiders as well as doctors), who tried to warn the public of the pandemic added substance to it the fear that the virus is a man-made biological weapon. There are demands to investigate into the origins of the. BWC has to take it up with all the urgency and seriousness.
Absence of any formal verification regime to monitor compliance has limited the effectiveness of the Convention. BWC established a group of government experts (known as VEREX) for working out binding verification protocol to the BWC. VEREX is Experts to Examine Verification Measures.
Funds are another problem.
Why is the BWC so enormously important today?
Ever since the novel coronavirus broke out late in 2019, there have been speculations about the communist government of China trying to ‘cover-up’ the outbreak and hide the official figures.
The fact that the Chinese Government tried to suppress the attempts of the whistle blowers (the insiders as well as doctors), who tried to warn the public of the pandemic added substance to it the fear that the virus is a man-made biological weapon. There are demands to investigate into the origins of the. BWC has to take it up with all the urgency and seriousness.
Published date : 28 Nov 2020 11:55AM
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